No interesting subject

This week was pretty fun!

Monday was great we walked around the Harbor and played some pickle ball at the church. Also we got to go out with Brother McCormick and his son and teach the Youngs! They are super awesome, Carolina read 4 chapters in the Book of Mormon and we didn't even ask her to read! She also asked for her own copy so she didn't have to use Sedrick's. The McCormicks got along really well with them, it's a blast going out with them! 

On Tuesday got a new companion Elder Gamett, and sadly said goodbye to Elder Sauer :( 

After that we drove back to Heath, got settled in, ate at In-n-out, and then went out with Brother Bonilla! We drove around Heath with him, and the whole time he gave us referrals for us and other missionaries in other wards to stop by haha--it was great! Sadly or should I say happily it was raining and nobody answered the door so we got to talk with him more!

Wednesday we had District Council, and our new district seems pretty cool! Maybe not as cool as the last one but still cool. Alex took us out in the evening which was really fun! We got to teach a YSA named Fabian which was fun. He has a LOT of deep thoughts so it was a struggle to focus on what's important but it went really well and he wants to come to church! Alex also got us In-n-out which is why I like him so much.

On Thursday we did service at Helping Hands, and I got to test an elephant Humidifier! We ate dinner with the Smarts at Rosa's, and then went out with President Fisher! He's really cool, very smart and is constantly breathing out wisdom haha--We went out to the far corners of Heath, and he singlehandedly monopolized each contact but we weren't even mad because he was so good at it, and taught us a lot. We also got to teach Eddie and Karen again who already know President Fisher and like him cause missionaries have brought him over before!

Friday we had virtual mission conference which was okay, it's the first one that I haven't LOVED but still some good things. Hermano Velasquez went out with us in the evening and we taught the Youngs again! It was fun we finally got to teach them a full Restoration lesson.

Saturday we went to dinner with the Velasquez family and they had a baby shower happening so it was a loud party haha--all in Spanish. It was super fun though, and we had some amazing food. We went up to Greenville with Spencer in the evening and found a couple new people to teach!

On Sunday we went out with Spencer and Samuel and stopped by Nikki who we had felt like we should visit! She let us in and we had an awesome lesson! Apparently last time the missionaries came by She had just lost her job and they gave her a blessing and then got a job 2 days later! Then she lost her job again and we showed up! She knows some people in the ward so we are hoping she comes to church cause she knows God sent us.

-Elder Nielson

To say the least

Hi everyone! 

This was a crazy week! Had a lot of fun. This email may be a bit shorter than usual cause of transfers. But then again, it may be LONGER than usual! Or maybe it will be just like usual. We will see. 

Monday we played a lot of pickleball with Jack and Victoria in the morning, and then our District in the afternoon. In the evening we went out with Richie and taught an inactive member named Kaity! She's pretty cool, she just decided she wants to come back which is cool!

Tuesday we had our final District Council of the transfer, so we got to do Testimonies and False Prophecies. We also did some planning for Jacks baptism, and called some companionships to deal with some things. In the evening we went and taught Jack which was super fun! We got him set up on Family Search and did some family history with him! 

On Wednesday we had a virtual mission conference to learn about the 2 new KIs and at the end President said, "With transfers coming up we have a bunch of new missionaries coming in so there will be a lot of changes. So please pray for me, and pray for yourselves!"

After the mission conference we went put to Rowlett and exchanged with Elder Dawe and Elder Anderson. I went with Elder Anderson and we had a great comp study in the afternoon. We ate dinner with someone in their ward and luckily they spoke English too so I knew what was going on! We went out with Nick and stopped by a lot of people in Rowlett, and figured out a LOT of people have moved haha--which is fun because then you get to talk to whoever is new!

Thursday we went to the Rowlett District Council which was fun! We also did False Prophecies there. In the evening we went out with Brother Cline in his 2006 Mustang! It was really cool and lots of fun to ride around in. We also had another lesson with Jack! He's such a genuine (but still funny) person now! We read Alma 47 with him.

On Friday we ate at Boots Burgers again, and went out with Spencer to some lessons! We taught Tony about the Aaronic Priesthood and invited him to get it. He should be getting it next Sunday. Spencer is one of the funniest people to work with, there's never a dull moment!

Saturday we had Jack's baptism which was super good! His parents and grandparents who are all not members came, and I got to baptize him! It was a great experience that we got to be a part of, and the YSA made a good showing too! We went out to lunch with Victoria's family, Jack, and Jacks mom at Standard Service afterwards and my burger was pretty good! In the evening we went and taught the Colliers with Brother Bevan. It was fun, we talked about the Gospel and baptism and after skirting around the topic for 30 minutes we finally pinned them down and put them on date for February 25th. Which is super exciting! After the lesson and our other visits we got to ride home in Brother Bevan's brand new Dodge Challenger Hellcat. I can't decide which cars we ride in that I like best!

Sunday Jack got confirmed, the Aaronic Priesthood, and a temple recommend! Hopefully we can go this week or next week to do baptisms. We also got transfer news and I am staying here and getting a new comp (Elder Gamett), and Elder Sauer is going out to be a ZL in Shreveport! 

-Elder Nielson

(No subject)

Hi everyone! Or I guess not hi everyone just hi to the 5 people who are reading this :)

This week was a lot of fun, on Monday we went to Shenanigans (which a member here owns) and they gave us free VIP passes so we could do as much bowling, laser tag, pool, and arcade as we wanted haha--it was a lot of fun we met as a District and had a great time. Monday evening we went out with Chandler in his super nice all black Camero! It was a lot of fun racing around the starry countryside in that! We found a new family to teach in the Heath ward who seem really awesome!

Tuesday we had lunch at Standard Service with Jack which was fun! He's changed so much I can't believe it. He used to be so sarcastic and never serious but our whole lunch with him we were able to have some great genuine conversation! He's excited for his baptism. After lunch we went out with Kyle and stopped by some people in Fate. 

For dinner we had Prime Rib with the Chavez's, which is the second time I've had Prime Rib this transfer haha--In the evening we went out with Kyle's brother Eric and drove out accross the bridge to Rowlett! Rowlett is such a cute little city, the only problem is the traffic. After we made some visits there we got in the long line of cars to cross the bridge and it was SO LONG! We could do nothing except sit and feel trapped. It took us an hour and a half to get out haha--it was really fun talking to Eric Though! Only problem is it made us super late to our lessons, but it all worked out. Traffic is one of those forces of nature that cannot be controlled which makes it almost peaceful to get caught in it cause you know you've done all you can do and now it's time for Christ to take over ;)

We great lessons with Tony and Jack, we taught Tony the Word of Wisdom. The Coffee part caught him off guard, and he seemed sad about it, but then unpromted he said "I promise to do my best to keep the Word of Wisdom!" Which is awesome, he then told us how it's a small price to pay for the blessings that come.

Wednesday was Park-your-car day, so we did some biking. In the afternoon we got Luke to come out with us and we drove way out to Terrell! We had felt like we needed to go there and we had no member for the afternoon and that would be a longggg bike ride, but we put it in anyway and then prayed we could find a member. We texted a bunch of members and then luckily found one. Luke later told us that he had not wanted to come but his mom said to pray about it and he did, and then he read a scripture saying to stop being slothful haha--so he came with us! One lady we talked to in Terrell said they'd been searching for a new church and God must have sent us!

In the evening we went out with Brother Hobbs, and then after our evening around 8 we went and hung out with Jack and Victoria for our dinner hour (which we had moved since nobody else had signed up to feed us and because they really wanted us to come over).

On Thursday we did some service, and then we had District Council and our Zone Call. In the evening we went and taught the Collier family, and Patriarch Smart and his wife came with us! We had an awesome Spiritual lesson, we are hoping to put them on date to be baptized next time! The Smarts had so many great insights and could relate to the Colliers in ways we could not. After our lesson we had an SPR meeting which was fun, this Stake seems really supportive of us! They are going to focus on retention more because there are a lot of recent converts. 

On Friday we recalled a restaurant referrals we got from Brother Hobbs called Boots Burgers. So we decided to drive to North Rockwall and check it out. Let me describe the experience:

First you drive up to this old rickety house, unsure if it's the right place, until you see an old falling-apart carport and booth at the back of the house with signs signaling you are at the right place. You walk up and they have a notecard with the menu on it. You can get a single or double Burger, and if you really want you can also get some chips. You walk up and a slightly hidden bearded face pokes his head out a small window and asks you in a gruff voice what you want. You of course order a burger as that is the option you have. Then you go and sit on these benches in their yard smelling the grease of burgers for 10 minutes contemplating what brought you to this point. When your name is called you are handed a small brown bag with some greasy finger prints on it and then you have to leave and eat it somewhere else cause they aren't legally licensed as a restaurant so to keep from getting in trouble you have to leave. Once you arrive at a park you open the bag and take out the burger. The more bites you take the better it tastes and you realize it was all worth it. After eating it you look back on it with more and more fondness wishing you had gotten 2 or 3 Burgers. The whole experience sounds more and more appealing the more you think back on it. The only way to describe the burger looking back is "it was just so good." 

So that's kinda what it was like. Probably one of the most homemade tasting burgers I've had on my mission. And I bet no other missionaries have ever gone to this place, it's only a place the locals appreciate and know about, and if it weren't for us just deciding to go we would have never found it!

In the afternoon we exchanged with the APs which was fun, I went up to Allen 2/7 with Elder Gardner and Elder Esplin went down to Heath with Elder Sauer. It was a fun exchange, we went out with a member from the Allen 2nd ward and made a lot of great contacts and found a couple potentially interested people! Elder Gardner is cool, definitely a very numbers-focused guy which is not the best but he's really nice.

On Saturday we exchanged back and then had Tony's baptism in the evening! It went soo well we had some cool people from the YSA show up and Tony said he felt 1000× lighter after he was baptized! He loved it and seemed to just be super happy the rest of the night. Then we went out with Spencer who I love going out with, and stopped by some members in McLendon-Chisholm.

Sunday was also fun, I confirmed Tony, gave a talk, and we also did a missionary moment thing with the primary. 

-Elder Nielson

A green speck

Dear people,

This was a great week, we had a lot of fun! I can't believe it's Monday again.

Monday was fun we ate lunch with Elder Dawe and Elder Andersen at In-n-out. I love hanging out with them. We played some Cribbage and Dominoes at the Church afterwards.

In the evening we got a call from Brother Rojas asking for urgent help cause his house is flooding and he's gone in Utah! So we rushed over and his neighbors turned off the water, and we went in and tore out all the carpet and pad under the carpet. Then we got some Shopvacs and started vacuuming up all the water we could. It was sad cause they have a huge beautiful house (as everyone here does) but we just had to be ruthless and rip everything out. Then some guys from the insurance came and tore up all the walls and everything too and set up fans everywhere.

After that we went out with Luke and stopped by some people in Heath.

Tuesday morning we spent all morning typing up the SPR which was fun. We had to get a ton of info from all the missionaries, add it to a document, add up the numbers and remove all the useless stuff they put in. We did a LOT of editing.

For lunch we went to Torchy's with Jack. It was fun, and the food was amazing as usual. We are lucky to have a Torchy's and an In-n-out so close! Easily the best area I've been in. We also have 2 of 3 Bucky's in our zone. Our lunch was fun, we squared away some things for his baptism.

After that I went on exchanges with Elder Nani here in Rockwall while Elder Sauer went with Elder King down to Forney 1. For dinner we had Chinese with the James's which was pretty good. Then we went out with Richie to talk to people in Royse City! It was so fun, he's a service missionary in the YSA and he's sooo funny! He's constantly talking and ranting about the state of various things. One of the most fun nights ever going out with him even though everyone told us to go away haha

Wednesday we exchanged back, gave the STLs some blessings, and then headed up to the Greenville District Council. It was fun, I like going to other people's District Councils! Elder Cypers is a good DL, and definitely seems to know what he's doing. In the evening we went out with Brother Hobbs who is one of my favorite people. He's hilarious and says everything that's on his mind and is constantly switching between dead serious and not serious at all. We had a super fun night, we got to teach the Bonillas who had a surprise Fajita dinner ready for us haha--we were bot mad. I love the Bonillas they are super funny, and the nicest people you will ever meet.we ended the night by getting carried away talking to Brother Hobbs in the car about conspiracy theories.

Thursday morning we did service at Helping Hands and we had the Rockwall District Council and did our Zone Call in the afternoon. In the evening we went out with Gene which was fun! He brought his ancient green Chevy pickup. It was a three-seater so we squished in up front, drove to Fate and found someone to teach, and stopped by some others too. The whole time we talked solely about guns. It was a great night!

We ended the night by meeting with the DLs and setting our Spiritual Commitment.

On Friday we went to MLC! It was super fun, lots of good Trainings and got to eat Hawaiian Haystacks and play games and talk too. It was super fun seeing some of the Elders and Sisters from past eras in my mission! The only problem with MLC is cause everyone is the big dogs they think that everything they say is so great and inspired haha--but that's unavoidable when you get a bunch of leaders together I guess.

MLC went until 4:30, and then we headed to the Stewart's house for dinner. It was a gigantic house, they had their own pond, forest, and pool. They also showed us their car shop on their property. They had a super nice old porsche, and some cameros. We had some super good BBQ with them, everything was so good. Then we went out with Justin and taught Tony and Jack. We taught them Tithing and Word of Wisdom, and they are both unsurprised by these Commandments and are ready to keep them which is awesome.

Saturday we helped take down all the Christmas lights off the trees at the Church. For dinner we had Chiloso, and I had one of the best burritos I have ever had with the best Jalepeno Ranch I have ever had! In the evening we went out with Spencer and found a family in the Heath ward to teach!

Sunday was good we went to the Heath ward and the YSA as usual, and then the STLs had a pass-off lesson with us cause someone they were teaching is YSA age. We met at the church for the lesson and unfortunately he ended up bashing us (nicely) for an hour instead. He wanted us to read some books about how we are a cult and stuff (of course), so we will not be teaching him.

In the evening all our members fell through so we just drove around Heath listening to Rhapsody in Blue stopping by people and knocking some other random houses too. It was a lot of fun!! Every single person we talked to was antagonistic towards the church haha--and we got in another mini bash. But it was a good night driving through the countryside and contemplating the sad state of all the people.

-Elder Nielson